TABLE XV.-Table Showing Original Requests and Recommendations of Board of Public Affairs, 1921-23

TABLE XVI.-Table Showing Original Requests and Recommendations of Board of

Consultation with the heads of the scientific agencies indicates on the whole that they are satisfied with this procedure. The view is held that they are relieved of the necessity of lobbying their appropriations through the legislature and are thus enabled to spend time formerly employed at the state capitol in carrying on the work of their department. The same view was expressed by a former secretary of the board. In one case the opinion was expressed that a larger

appropriation could be secured by direct appeal to the committee on appropriations.

A few quotations from correspondence with heads of scientific divisions may serve to define their attitude.

"Considered from the standpoint of the legislature and a balancing of the general state expenditures with the willingness of the people to pay for these things, it is my impression that the state of Wisconsin is spending probably about what should be spent upon the activities carried on by this agency. Under any system of budget making it has been my experience that the personality of the head of any department is the largest factor in the adequacy or inadequacy of the appropriations secured. Almost no member of the legislature can really be sufficiently informed to decide intelligently upon the amounts of money which a scientific department should spend, and as a consequence the amount of money appropriated must necessarily be based upon the legislature's judgment of the men in charge of various activities. If the legislature has confidence in these men, adequate sums are provided."

"The board appreciates the need and value of our labors for the state and we have had no difficulty during the past four years in getting its members to pass favorably upon our requested increases."

"I will say that we have found both the State Board of Public Affairs and the legislature inclined to treat this agency as liberally as the general policy of the state respecting taxation seemed to permit. I think it is an advantage to the legislature to have at its command the computations of the State Board of Public Affairs. We believe it is a good thing for us to get our data ready for the state board several months before the legislature meets."

"I would say that the budget arrangements in Wisconsin seem to me as satisfactory as they could possibly be made. The head of the department works over the whole budget for the department and often revises the figures somewhat in order to correlate them with the needs of other divisions and with the general policy of the state administration. The review of the entire matter by the Board of Public Affairs may result in an amount being recommended to the legislative committee somewhat lower than that which the departments desire but the recommendations are in the hands of the department long before the legislative committee meets and if there is an item to which the department believes the board has not been entirely fair it has the opportunity of making a special presentation of such an item before the legislative committee."

On the other hand there is a common feeling that the final appropriations are inadequate. "It is believed that our appropriation is

wholly inadequate for the work that we have to do." This study is concerned with this issue only so far as the inadequacy is a result of the operation of the central financial control, and is not concerned at all with the further issue of the policy of the legislature. The testimony and evidence gathered seem to indicate that in Wisconsin the responsibility for relatively small appropriations is almost exclusively in the Joint Committee on Finance and in the general policy of the legislature to hold taxes at the lowest possible figure.

Former Governor E. L. Philipp in an address before the Conference of State Purchasing Agents at Madison in 1919 compared the former and the present methods of securing appropriations. He said in part, "In the old days, individual departments and bureaus of departments had bills introduced in the legislature, financing their work. Every department was pressing for its own appropriation. Public officers practically suspended the operation of their offices during the legislative session to ingratiate themselves with the legislature. A winning personality on the part of the public servant was more important than public service rendered and accounted for and the prospect of even better public service. No one knew how much it was going to cost to finance the government during the next fiscal period."

After describing the present course of the budget, Governor Philipp continued, "Departments themselves as a rule no longer initiate appropriation measures nor concern themselves about the passage of the appropriation measures. They know that at the proper time they will be called upon to present their case and after that it is up to the Finance Committee to champion their cause in the legislature. In this way the lobbying which department heads and even employees formerly indulged in has been eliminated. The budget of each department is considered on its merits and in the light of the whole financial plan. There is no opportunity to force appropriations through the legislature by alliances among departments."

The process of budget making in Wisconsin, in conclusion, seems to recommend itself on the whole to those who are most concerned. The scientific departments no longer take their request to the legislature directly and as independent agencies, but are required to submit their plans to the revision of the Board of Public Affairs in the light of the financial condition and general policy of the state and the comparative importance of their respective work programs. Each scientific agency, however, has full opportunity to present its case both before the Board of Public Affairs and the Joint Committee on Finance, and in the opinion of most of the scientific men this opportunity furnishes an adequate safeguard of their interests. They gain

freedom from the personal lobbying which formerly seemed to be necessary to secure appropriations.

The study of the expenditures of scientific divisions in comparison with the general rate of state expenditures indicates that they have proceeded at about the same rate since 1917.

Using the year 1914-15 as a base and giving it a value of 100 in each case we arrive at the following table of proportional variation:

Three further matters remain to be considered in connection with the Wisconsin budget procedure, the degree of itemization, the system of continuing appropriations and the method of handling contingency funds.

The Wisconsin budget with some exceptions is a lump-sum budget. The aggregate appropriation is sometimes made in one figure only for the whole department, sometimes in two or three figures for operation, repairs and equipment, etc., sometimes with specific allotments to be made from the lump sum. Thus the appropriation to the State Historical Society reads, "On July 1, 1921, $60,000 and on July 1, 1922, $55,000, to carry into effect the powers, duties, and functions of said society." These sums represent, of course, the aggregate of an itemized budget which has been submitted to the scrutiny of the legislature and in general accordance with which it is understood that the money will be expended.

Nevertheless there is discretion in the head of the institution or department to vary the items as changing circumstances may indicate. to be desirable, provided, however, that money requested for operation could not be used for permanent improvements, or vice versa. At the end of each fiscal period, each responsible official is held to account